Optimization of Water Distribution Network

Design Considering the Cost and Resiliency

A
Report submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for course of
CE 8930-UNDER GROUND CONSTRUCTION
IN
CIVIL ENGINEERING
BY
HARSHIT SHUKLA
(C19417848)
Under the guidance of
Dr. KALYAN RAM PIRATLA

Glenn Department of Civil Engineering

Clemson University
Clemson, SC
Fall-2016

Table of Contents
List of Figures ...................................................................................................................ii
List of Tables ....................................................................................................................ii
Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iii
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1

Problem Statement ............................................................................................ 1

2. Methodology ............................................................................................................. 2
3. Results and Discussion ............................................................................................ 4
4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 6
Reference........................................................................................................................ 6

List of Figures
Figure 1 Water distribution network ................................................................................. 1
Figure 2 The limiting curve of all the solutions in the two objectives space ..................... 4
Figure 3 The limiting curve of the Pareto-Optimal solutions front in the two objectives
space............................................................................................................................... 4

List of Tables
Table 1 Nodal elevations and demands .......................................................................... 2
Table 2 Pipe lengths........................................................................................................ 2
Table 3 Value of crossover and mutator for each trail ..................................................... 3
Table 4 Diameter classes and cost of pipes .................................................................... 3
Table 5 Comparison of optimal and alternative solutions for the water distribution network
........................................................................................................................................ 5

ii

Abstract

A water distribution network with 30 pipes, 22 nodes and 9 loops, which is fed by a pump
(4.52 kW) from a reservior with a 71 m fixed head has been designed for the given set of
demand and pressure requirements. The optimization technique is used to design this
network with the objectives to minimize the capital cost pipe material and installation and
maximize the resilinecy in the system considering the flow and pressure constraints. The
EPANET and GANetXL tool is used to model the network and optimize the design. The
results obtained by GANetXL shows that the multi-objective approach may not provide
the global optimal solution, but it can provide the set of local optimal solutions. A
comparison amongst the set of diameters based on the capital cost and resilience index
have been presented in this project for the given network which may be the optimal
solution for the network.
Keyword: Water Distribution Network; Resilience Index; Multi-Objective Optimization;
Pareto-Optimal Solution,

iii

1. Introduction
The aim of this project is to design a water distribution network whose layout, demand
and pressure requirement is decided. A design which is feasible, reliable, resilient and
economical should be adopted. The best way to achieve such a design is to use the
optimization techniques by setting the objectives and constraints for the problem. In this
project the objectives are to minimize the capital cost of pipe (material and installation);
at the same time maximize the resiliency in the system; the constraints are flow and
pressure. The optimization of such a complicated problem cannot be completed without
the help of software and computational tools. In this project the EPANET and GANetXL
tool have been used to achieve the desired results.
EPANET is a software which is used to model the hydraulic and water quality behavior of
water distribution network. The software is freely available at Environmental Protection
Agencys website. This software is capable of creating a model of water distribution
network and perform hydraulic analysis based on different parameters (demand, head
loss due to friction, bends, fittings, etc., pump speed and power, reservoir head, length
and diameter of the pipe). GANetXL is an optimization tool which is an add-in for
Microsoft Excel. It uses the genetic algorithm to solve the single and multi-objective
optimization problems.
1.1 Problem Statement

Figure 1 Water distribution network

The water distribution network consists of 30 pipes, 22 nodes and 9 loops, and is fed by
a pump (4.52 kW) from a reservior with a 71 m fixed head as shown in Figure 1. The
demands and elevation are shown in Table 1, and pipe lengths are shown in Table 2. The
pipe is made of ductile iron with a Hazen-Williams coefficient of 100. The minimum lead
1

requirment at each node is 15 m above the ground level. The cost of pipe material and
the cost of installation are defined by Equation 1 and 2 respectively.
Cp = -19.2 + 5.26D + 0.28D2

(Eq. 1)

Ci = -14.8 +4.9D + 1.5H

(Eq. 2)

Where Cp and Ci are cost of pipe material and cost of installation in $/ft respectively; D is
nomial diamter of the pipe in inches; and H is the cover depth in ft. which is 10ft for this
problem.
Table 1 Nodal elevations and demands

Node
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Demand (CMD)
71
56.40
53.80
54.90
56.00
57.00
53.90
54.50
57.90
62.10
62.80

Elevation (m)
Reservoir
153
70.5
58.5
75
67.5
63
48
42
30
42

Node
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22

Demand (CMD)
58.60
59.30
59.80
59.20
53.60
54.80
55.10
54.20
54.50
62.90
61.80

Elevation (m)
37.5
37.5
63
445.5
108
79.5
55.5
118.5
124.5
31.5
799.5

Table 2 Pipe lengths

Pipe
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Pipe Length (m)

165
124
118
81
134
135
202
135
170
113

Pipe
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Pipe Length (m)

335
115
345
114
103
261
72
373
98
110

Pipe
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Pipe Length (m)

98
246
174
102
92
100
130
90
185
90

2. Methodology
The water distribution network is created using the EPANET software based on the given
values of node demand, elevation, pipe length and Hazen-Williams coefficient. An
arbitrary value of diameter (600 mm) is used initially to create the network. The EPANET
performs extended period simulation of the water flow within the network. This network is
exported as .inp file which is further used in Microsoft Excel with the help of Visual Basic.
The codes are written in Visual Basic to get the desired result using the EPANET
interface.
2

The optimization process is performed by the GANetXL tool in Excel. The objectives for
this optimization are to minimize the capital cost and maximize the resilience. The
resilience index (RI) is calculated using the Equation 3 quantified by Todini (2000).
n

q (h )
=1

q
+
=1
/ =1


=1

(Eq. 3)

Where Qk is the discharge at reservoir, Hk is the head at reservoir, hi is the head at each
node i, qi is the flow at each node i, hi* is the required head at each node i, qi* is the initial
demand at each node i, Pj is the power at each pump and is the specific weight of water.
A total of 9 trials and 1000 generation in each trial have been performed by changing the
crossover and mutation value in GANetXL which is shown in Table 3. To optimize the
capital cost and resilience index a set of diameter of pipes with their respective cost of
material and installation is used as shown in Table 4.
Table 3 Value of crossover and mutator for each trail

Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Trial 4
Trial 5
Trial 6
Trial 7
Trial 8
Trial 9

Crossover
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.7
0.65
0.75
0.75
0.75
0.75

Mutator
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.04
0.03
0.04
0.03
0.06
0.07

Table 4 Diameter classes and cost of pipes

Diameter(inch)
4.00
6.00
8.00
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
18.00
20.00
24.00
30.00
36.00
42.00
48.00
54.00
60.00
64.00

Cost of Pipe $/ft

$6.32
$22.44
$40.80
$61.40
$84.24
$109.32
$136.64
$166.20
$198.00
$268.32
$390.60
$533.04
$695.64
$878.40
$1,081.32
$1,304.40
$1,464.32

Cost of Installation $/ft.

$19.80
$29.60
$39.40
$49.20
$59.00
$68.80
$78.60
$88.40
$98.20
$117.80
$147.20
$176.60
$206.00
$235.40
$264.80
$294.20
$313.80

Capital Cost $/ft.

$26.12
$52.04
$80.20
$110.60
$143.24
$178.12
$215.24
$254.60
$296.20
$386.12
$537.80
$709.64
$901.64
$1,113.80
$1,346.12
$1,598.60
$1,778.12

3. Results and Discussion

1
0.95
0.9
0.85

Resilience Index

0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0

5000000

10000000

15000000

20000000

25000000

30000000

Capital Cost
Figure 2 The limiting curve of all the solutions in the two objectives space

Pareto-Optimal Front
25000000

Capital Cost

20000000

15000000

10000000

5000000

0
0.8

0.82

0.84

0.86

0.88

0.9

0.92

0.94

0.96

0.98

Resilience Index
Figure 3 The limiting curve of the Pareto-Optimal solutions front in the two objectives space

The Figure 2 represents the curve between capital cost and resilience index of all the
results obtained for 9 trials by GANetXL. It can be seen that after certain point the value
of resilience index is not varying with respect to the increase of capital cost. Therefore,
all the solutions presented here are not the non-dominant solutions or optimal solutions.
Figure 3 shows a set non-dominant solutions or Pareto-Optimal solutions for the water
distribution network selected from Figure 2. It can be inferred from Figure 3 that the small
increase in the capital cost can result in very high resilience index. Hence, the designer
needs to make a tradeoff between the capital cost and resilience depending upon the on
the more practical constraints as on site feasibility and project requirements.
Table 5 Comparison of optimal and alternative solutions for the water distribution network

Pipe
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Capital Cost
Resilience Index

Set A Diameter
(inch)
10
10
4
8
6
6
4
10
6
4
4
4
4
4
8
4
4
4
8
4
4
4
8
4
8
4
4
8
6
6
$686,315.86
0.919

Set B Diameter
(inch)
10
10
10
8
6
6
4
6
6
4
4
4
4
6
8
4
4
4
8
4
4
4
8
4
8
4
4
8
4
6
$687,046.38
0.938

Set C Diameter
(inch)
10
10
10
8
6
6
4
6
6
4
4
4
4
4
8
4
4
4
8
4
4
4
8
4
8
4
4
8
6
6
$693,082.63
0.944

The set of three solutions (A, B, and C) in the range of 0.91 to 0.94 of the resilience index
is presented in Table 5 and compared to the optimal cost solution in terms of pipe
diameter, capital cost and resilience index. These three sets have been selected based
on the observation from Figure 2. The deciding factor for selection was to get the
maximum resilience with respect to the minimum cost. It can be seen that the set A has
the low capital cost and resilience index then set B and set B has the low capital cost and
resilience index then set C. However, the difference of capital cost between set A and set
B is $730.52 only with the small increase of resilience index (0.019) and the difference of
capital cost between set B and set C is $6036.25 with the very small increase of resilience
index (0.006).
The designer needs to select a set of diameters from these Pareto-Optimal solutions
depending upon the site conditions, and importance of the network.

4. Conclusion
The design of a water distribution network for a given set of layout, demand and pressure
requirements have been performed using the multi-optimization technique. The
objectives are to minimize the capital cost of pipe material and installation; at the same
time maximize the resiliency in the system considering the flow and pressure constraints.
The results obtained by GANetXL shows that the multi-objective approach may not
provide the global optimal solution, but it can provide the set of local optimal solutions.
The designer can select a best possible set of local optimal solution which is suitable for
their site conditions and importance of the project. A comparison amongst the set of
diameters based on the capital cost and resilience index have been presented in this
project for the given network which may be the optimal solution for the network.

Reference
Todini, E. (2000). Looped water distribution networks design using a resilience index
based heuristic approach. Urban water, 2(2), 115-122.